


You Can't Handle the Truth

by Anonymous_Skrub



Series: The Mass Effect Clusterfuck [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: AU, F/F, much gay, no xenophobes, plot armor, too many rainbows
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 05:11:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11006688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous_Skrub/pseuds/Anonymous_Skrub
Summary: Basically the title explains everything in ME1.Tip of a hat to "A Few Good Men" for the title inspiration. Bless you, Jack Nicholson.





	You Can't Handle the Truth

The silent hum of the  _ Normandy _ 's engines gently reassured Systems Alliance Navy Commander Gabriella Shepard as she checked her M-7 rifle one last time. Eden Prime, once a world of untold beauty and promise, resembled something out of a 21st century war movie, with homes in ruins and bodies strewn about.

 

"Joker to Spectre One, the first drop zone is coming up. ETA twenty seconds," Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau announced over the ship's intercom. Nihlus, the Council Spectre attached to the  _ Normandy _ crew, nodded, and racked the bolt on his own submachine gun. The cargo bay ramp slowly descended, and Joker eased the SR1 down to a safe twenty knots per an hour.

 

"Commander, I'll meet you groundside. I'll also feed you intel and the like as we both progress to the beacon. Good luck," Nihlus said, before simply stepping out into the open air.

 

Shepard watched him land, roll, and shrink as the Normandy picked up speed again. She turned to her two squadmates, and yelled over the howling air, "READY CHECK!"

 

Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko responded, "TWO, READY!" Lance Corporal Jenkins called out from behind Alenko, "THREE, READY!" Shepard nodded, and yelled, "HOOK UP!" The three Marines hooked up their rapid release parachutes to the static line running the right side wall of the cargo bay.

 

"Flock 1, drop zone in 10 seconds," Joker reported. Captain Anderson held on to a support beam, and nodded to Shepard. She winked back and gave a thumbs up. She readjusted her breather and took a single deep breath.

 

"-or, three, two..." Joker trailed off, and Shepard picked up immediately, yelling, "Green light!" The Marines jumped from the speeding ship, parachutes deploying just in time to land on a small clearing on a cliff. The one thousand foot drop was a quick one, compared to others Shepard had done. (Including the freaky orbital drop she made that one time, which, to this day, she swears was some officer's obsession with Halo ODSTs. Like, those are more than half a century old, man.)

 

As the Marines stashed their parachutes into surrounding brush- hey, they're on a time limit- and formed up, Alenko muttered, "Smells like smoke and death." Jenkins hummed in agreement next to him. Shepard made a two fingered gesture to say, "Move up", and the trio began their trek.

 

"Ma'am, indigenous creatures. Hostile?" Alenko asked, raising his rifle. Jenkins pushed it down gently, reassuring the other two, "They're gasbags, completely harmless. I'm from here, I'd know." Shepard nodded, quipping, "Thanks, Jenkins," before moving around the floating jellyfish like gas filled creatures.

 

"Watch right," Shepard ordered, sliding against a rock wall to shield herself from view of any not-as-harmless-as-gasbag-creatures. She craned her head a bit, never losing sight of the corner, softly barking, "Jenkins, on point. I'll cover you." 

 

Jenkins gave a low, "Oorah," and moved to get behind a rock pile. He didn't get halfway there.

 

"CONTAAAACK!" Jenkins began to shout before lasers riddled his body and he collapsed, dead. Shepard stared for less than a second, before yelling, "WEAPONS FREE!" Alenko needed no further prodding, letting loose several long bursts from his rifle.

 

Shepard finally got a good look at her target as she pumped several bullets into it. "LT, check on Jenkins," she absent mindedly said, already knowing the answer. She turned the recon probe like object over. It had the basic body of a typical hovermech, however, it also had a twin barreled laser cannon mounted underneath it.

 

"What are you...?" she muttered, before Kaidan tapped her, causing her to turn around. In his hand he held a pair of shining dog tags that were stained red. She looked up into Kaidan's eyes, nodding before pocketing the bloodied identification and saying, "Let's move."

 

The two progressed up a hill, eyes narrowed and rifles raised. As Shepard scanned her sector, her gut clenched and the back of her skull vibrated like crazy. She immediately took hold of Alenko's armored forearm and pulled him down along with her as laser fire tore through the air where their bodies had been.

 

"I count at least 3 bogeys!" Alenko called out, accidently slipping into fighter pilot terms. "Solid copy!" Shepard shouted back, as she hunkered down behind a rock outcropping. As the fire slowed down, indicating the drones' weapons were overheating, Shepard hollered, "Return fire!" 

 

She and Alenko sprang up, and destroyed the enemy mechs in a matter of seconds. The two slowly got up and scanned the woodlands to their sides, slowly making their way to the downed robots. As one started to whir, Shepard stepped on its optic cluster and put two rounds into it. The drone didn't whir anymore.

 

"Flock 1, this is Spectre 1, how copy?" Nihlus' voice sounded over the comms. "Flock 1, send traffic," Shepard responded. "I have eyes on multiple hostile mechs. Both humanoid and drones. I'm highly certain these are Geth. Have you seen any, over?" Shepard swallowed, answering, "We've destroyed about five or six of the drones. Haven't encountered the humanoids and... and Lance Corporal Jenkins was killed in action during an ambush after we landed." 

 

Nihlus was silent for a while, before responding, "Copy that, Flock 1. ETA to the bea- wait, hold on." He evidently left the transmit on, because she could hear him shifting and extending a weapon. "Flock 1, I have a visual on several Geth command units. Moving to intercept. Hopefully this will put some of their efficiency down.”

 

"Ma'am," Kaidan harshly whispered, gesturing for her to get down and join him at his observation post on a log. A spotter scope had been set up by him, and he said, "Crack open your sniper and check this out, Commander." Shepard frowned, but did as he said, leaning the lower handguard on the wood. 

 

Kaidan directed her scope, and she felt bile rise in her throat. Humanoid Geth placed a living human- a colonist- on some contraption, then it extended into a spike that tore through his chest. A flash of white and pink caught her eye, and she looked down to see a human female in Marine armor huffing and puffing behind a rock. 

 

Her rifle had been reduced to a heap of red hot and smoking scrap. The sidearm she had was covered in dirt and blood, and smoke still rose from the muzzle, indicating recent use. The Geth moved towards her on either side of the rock. She swore, and muttered, "LT, call it."

 

Kaidan flicked on a range finder, and said, "Range is two fife tree meters and closing. Adjust half click up." Shepard did so, and awaited the windage. "Wind is full value, left to right, 7 MPH. Adjust one and three quarter clicks left." As Shepard lined up her scope's crosshairs with what should be the chest of the machine (because what idiot actually aims for the head- especially a blinding flashlight head?) and gently squeezed the trigger. A crack and dull thud echoed, and a gaping chest wound caused the robot to spill machine oil and deactivate. The second one didn't have a prayer as the round tore through its sternum area.

 

"Good kills, ma'am," Kaidan said. "Thanks for the help, lieutenant," Shepard acknowledged. The two scurried their way down the hill to the exhausted Marine. "Alenko, cover us," Shepard barked. The young lieutenant took up a position that gave a clear view of the path leading to the dig site.

 

Shepard examined her fellow Marine, and found a few penetrations in her armor. "Hey, hey," she said, lightly smacking the woman's helmet, "stay with me here, alright? Here's some medigel." The Marine sighed as her wounds closed up. "Thank you," she rasped.

 

Shepard fished around her belt until she found her canteen and an MRE pack. She ripped open the pack and poured some water in to activate the "cooking" chemical reaction. She looked back up at the woman, chuckling, "Hope you like vegetable lasagna, 'cause that's all I got." Even almost a century and a half later, the Marine Corps had still kept the traditional shitty MREs and life-saving bullet-catching canteens. Oh, the nostalgia an Iraq veteran would get seeing these jarheads now.

 

The woman grimaced before downing the energy maintaining food and taking a swig of Shepard's canteen. "Oh, that's much better," she groaned in relief. "Can you tell me who you are, Marine?" Shepard asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

 

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th Marines, err.. ma'am?" Shepard nodded, saying, "Commander Gabriella Shepard, executive officer of the SSV  _ Normandy _ , on mission for pickup of a Prothean beacon from this planet. Can you help, Gunny?" Williams nodded, hauling herself to her feet.

 

"This is Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. We were due to rendezvous with a Turian Spectre named Nihlus. Black skin... scales... whatever, and white facial markings. Seen him?" Shepard asked, handing her sniper to Williams in place of her rifle. She extended it, saying, "Negative, ma'am. Though I saw a Turian with grey scales and white face markings. He was at the spaceport, directing the geth. My helmetcam got footage of it."

 

Shepard nodded, continuing, "Where's the beacon?" "Just follow the path for another two to three hundred meters and we'll be at the dig site, Commander," Williams quipped. "Alright," Shepard muttered, "Gunny, on point and lead us there." Williams nodded, compacting the sniper rifle and drawing her .45 sidearm.

 

After a brief jog up the slowly sloping path, the three Marines stumbled upon a small team of Geth troopers, and quickly hunkered down behind some rocks and ruins. Williams charged in after Alenko and Shepard had- killed? deactivated? let's go with destroyed- several Geth and grabbed one, empty half a dozen .45 rounds into the optical cluster. Using it as a shield, she then shot the trigger arm off another before blasting a weak joint in the lower torso section and causing it to fall down in two separate pieces.

 

"Nice work, Gunny," Shepard said, clapping her on the shoulder as she walked by. The team wandered into the ruins and dig site, only to find a few scattered crates and datapads, as well as- "The Two-Twelfth," Williams gasped. Dead Marines were strewn about, blood coating their damaged armor and still smoking weapons.

 

Shepard felt bile rise in her throat as she saw several were disemboweled- no way a rifle or any firearm could do that. The Geth did that up close and personal.

 

A groan shook all three out of their shocked stupor, and Shepard had medigel at the ready as she slid next to a barely breathing young Marine, blood oozing from his mouth. "Stay with me, Marine," Shepard barked, causing his fluttering eyes to snap open and refocus. He coughed up some blood, and leaned on his side to spit some out.

 

He turned back and groaned, before seeing Williams and offering a small smile. "Pleasure seeing you, Gunnery Chief Williams," he drawled, as Shepard and Alenko applied medigel to his wounds and stabilized him. Williams felt tears prick her eyes as she grasped his outstretched forearm in a warrior's greeting, hiccuping, "Good to see you, too, Lance Corporal Twombly." Twombly sighed as the medigel closed up some of his more minor wounds and mitigated the damage to his body that the major ones did. Luckily, the Geth's own weapons wound up cauterizing most of his wounds anyway.

 

"Joker, mark my position for medevac. We got a CAT Alpha down here. Get the Normandy here, ASAP, mister," Shepard barked. "Aye, aye, ma'am," Joker's warbled voice replied, already hovering above the old infil point and lowering a Marine squad equipped with jetpacks down, along with a floating stretcher to load Twombly on.

 

"Normandy is once again moving to holding pattern, Commander," Joker said. Before the lasers hit the hull. The Mako could be seen shaking violently inside the hold, and an engineer overseeing the Marines' departure fell out the still open cargo bay doors, screaming.

 

"Under fire! I spot three bandits closing in, high nine! Beginning evasive maneuvers!" Joker said. On cue, as soon as he rocketed out of the area, three Geth fighters screamed after the Normandy.

 

"Dammit," Shepard breathed. She glanced at her two companions, shouldering her rifle. On her HUD, a blinking icon indicated Nihlus was attempting to open a channel. Accepting the request, the turian's voice said into her earpiece: "Flock One, Spectre One. I have eyes on geth moving the beacon to the spaceport, near that UFO we saw in the videofeed. Moving to- what the?" 

 

After he abruptly cut off, Shepard shouted, "Spectre One! Spectre One, do you copy!?"

 

Nihlus started speaking again, clearly troubled, "Flock One, I have visual on another turian.. A Spectre, named Saren.. He shouldn't be here... Activating armorcam that will send  a recording to the Normandy. Going dark for now. Spectre One out."

 

Shepard whirled on Williams, asking her, "How far is the spaceport from here?" She swallowed, muttering, "Uhh.. about five minutes away, through the scientists' camp. The 232nd was guarding them. They might still be alive, ma'am."

 

Shepard nodded, gesturing for Williams to take point. They were led up a semi-natural path that lead to the scientists' camp above the dig site.

 

"Great place for an ambush," Kaidan muttered, keeping his pistol trained on several stacked boxes. "Stay frosty, Marines," Shepard growled. 

 

As they came to the top of the hill, they spotted three more dead bodies on pylons. However these were blue and grey, with pipes crisscrossing their bodies and blue... light bulb things... in their eye sockets. Suddenly, they started moving, and the pylons lowered.

 

"Oh my God," Ashley muttered, Kaidan picking up where she left off, "They're still alive!"

 

One crawled off the pylon base, looked at them, seeming to examine them. Suddenly, it opened its mouth and let out a blood curdling screech. "Blow these fuckers away!" Shepard shouted, using a biotic throw to hurl a zombie thing off the hill, where it splattered after falling 60 feet. 

 

Williams grabbed the rifle she took off a Geth trooper, expanding it and emptying 20 rounds into the thing's chest before stopping to let it cool. It fell to its knees, a gaping hole in its chest where the rounds had shredded the torso.

 

Kaidan emptied several rounds into his target, but it tackled him and started emitting a static electricity discharge, before the lieutenant finally put four rounds into its head. He lay there for a few seconds, unable to move, before finally rolling it off him. Shepard dashed over, sliding to her knees next to him, omnitool running a basic field scan.

 

"Y'alright, K?" she asked, offering a hand after the scan showed he was fine. Rolling his shoulders, he winced while cracking his neck. "Fine, ma'am; just a few scrapes and maybe a bruised rib. Definitely a bruised ego," he muttered, cringing at the amusement dancing in his XO's eyes.

 

"Please, you've had a bruised ego since I got that brunette you were trailing on shore leave in New York," Shepard goaded him, grinning. Kaiden stared at her, growling, "Fuck you." The eyebrow arched, waiting. He rolled his eyes, correcting himself: "Fuck you,  _ ma'am _ ." 

 

"Sorry to interrupt the regulation violation romance here, but... Dead marines and colonists? Geth attack? Prothean beacon?" Williams snarked. Shepard turned back, lightly slapping her ass. "Relax, GC. Alenko's not my type," she whispered. Williams went bright red, stuttering, "T-Then what is? Uh, ma'am?" Another arched eyebrow, a quick look at her hand- still lingering on her rear, edging on unexplored territory. Ashley let out a small squeak, squeaking, " _ Oh _ ."

 

The commander left her with a smirk, and increasingly uncomfortable underwear. Dammit, bad day to wear white. Wait a minute- all the military gave her was white. Jesus fuck, who decides this shit?!

 

"Boss, locked door on this building," Kaidan called. Shepard jogged over, and proceeded to bypass the locking mechanism.

 

Upon the door opening, the Marines stormed in, rifles raised and ready. Inside, they found overturned furniture and two cowering scientists. The man seemed to be in extreme shock, but the woman was cognizant enough, and seemed to recognize Ashley.

 

“Gunnery Chief Williams! Thank God, I thou- well, all the Marines from the 232nd… they’re outside…” she whispered, glancing fearfully at the door. Their name tags identified the woman as Dr. Warren, and the man as Dr. Manuel.

 

Shepard gestured to Williams to find out what she could from the scientists, bringing her radio online in an attempt to contact the  _ Normandy _ . 

 

“Normandy, this is Flock One. How copy?” she asked, glancing out the windows. All she got was static, causing her to curse. 

 

Turning back to the scientist(s?), she asked, “Where’s the beacon?” Warren replied, “At the spaceport. However, I heard lots of geth moving out that way, so they might be at it already.”

 

Checking her rifle over one last time, she growled, “Not on my watch,” before stopping due to a hand grabbing her. It was Manuel.

 

“You can’t stop it!” he cried, “You can’t stop the end! They’re coming back, just as they have before! It’s hopeless! You cannot stop destiny!” Shepard stared at him wide-eyed.

 

“The fuck is he saying?” she asked Warren, who was rifling through a supply bag. “Ignore him, Commander,” she stammered, “Manuel is a genius, have no doubt, but sometimes genius and madness are two sides of the same coin. I’m getting his meds now.”

 

The blubbering scientist continued shaking and whispering to himself, as Warren injected something into his arm. “There,” she breathed, turning back to Shepard. 

 

“You’d better head to the spaceport, Commander, before the Ge-” Warren started, only to be interrupted by a loud  _ CRACK _ . She instinctively ducked, and Shepard trained her rifle on the door. “Alenko!?” she called, who replied, “All clear out here. Gunnery is doing recon, she should be back soon.”

 

Shepard motioned  _ stay down  _ and went back outside, closing the door and marking the shelter for extraction. Alenko nodded at her, and they proceeded on to the spaceport and Ashley. 

 

Coming over the hill, Williams was lying down, binoculars pressed against her uncovered eyes. Kneeling down, Shepard tapped her shoulder, prompting her to look up, wide-eyed.

 

“Ma’am, the turian… he… he shot…” she began, unable to form a sentence. Shepard frowned, and looked through her sniper’s scope. What she saw made her blood run cold. She immediately opened a direct channel to Anderson.

 

“Captain, we’ve got a situation,” she stammered. Anderson replied  _ statim _ (immediately, for thou knowledgeable in the language of the dead- LATIN). “What is it, Commander?” he asked. Shepard kept staring at the blue blood leaking across the metal floor.

 

“Nihlus is down. I say again, Spectre down.”


End file.
